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Dessert

Parfaits of Tea and Orange Peel

A chilled dessert made with tea, cream, eggs, sugar, and candied orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Parfaits of Tea and Orange Peel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix the tea, sugar, and beaten egg yolks together.

  2. Cook in a double boiler until thick and creamy.

Assemble

  1. Once cold, fold in the stiffly beaten cream and the egg whites.

  2. Cut the candied orange peel into small pieces and soak in maraschino or orange syrup until very soft.

  3. Fold the soaked peel into the mixture.

Freeze and serve

  1. Pack the mixture in ice and salt for three to four hours.

  2. Serve garnished with additional candied peel.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Black tea + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard, and whites lighten the set parfait.
Heavy cream
Whipped into the base to add air, richness, and a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen parfait from freezing too hard.
Strong black tea
Provides the main flavor and color of the custard base.
Candied orange peel
Adds chewy texture and bright, bittersweet citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating scrambles them into lumps. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring keep the custard smooth and thick.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (black tea, cream, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against black tea, cream, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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